Sailors rally past Barons

Barry Faulkner

When, in subsequent years, Newport Harbor High football coach Jeff

Brinkley wants to illustrate his long-held belief that a successful

team is greater than the sum of its parts, he need only invoke the

example of the Sailors’ 20-7 nonleague season-opening victory over

Fountain Valley Thursday night.

The Sailors, despite missing four senior starters due to injury,

including last year’s Newport-Mesa Player of the Year, Spencer Link,

had more than enough to rally past the defending Sunset League

tri-champions (1-1) before 2,000 at Huntington Beach High.

“We live in a results-driven society,” Brinkley said after his

team rode sterling individual performances by two-way senior star

Alex Orth, senior quarterback Kasey Peters and senior

linebacker-running back Trevor Theriot to the program’s 14th win in

its last 16 openers (14-1-1 in that stretch). “So we weren’t about to

sit and ponder things we didn’t have.

“Our kids work hard and we asked them to step up. They all deserve

a lot of credit. All the guys who came in [for the injured absentees]

made plays.”

Foremost on that list was Orth, who scored two touchdowns and set

up a third with a dazzling catch just shy of the goal line. Orth, a

returning starter at safety, returned an interception 32 yards to

help pull the Sailors even with 10:17 left in the first half.

Travis Duffield’s conversion kick made it 7-7, erasing a 40-yard

touchdown bomb that capped Fountain Valley’s seven-play, 70-yard,

game-opening possession.

Orth, taking over as the leading receiver for Link, came up big

two Newport possessions later, batting a well-placed pass from Peters

in the air with one hand, then corralling it before it hit the turf

for a 30-yard gain to the Barons’ 2-yard line.

Sophomore tailback Jasen Ruiz stretched the ball over the goal

line on the next snap and Duffield converted again for a 14-7

advantage.

Newport sealed the deal after fielding the second-half kickoff,

driving 80 yards on 12 plays to finalize the scoring. The capper was

a 4-yard pass from Peters to Orth, who finished with eight catches

for 85 yards, gained 10 yards on a reverse, and sparkled all night in

the secondary.

“I told the coaches on campus this week that Alex has really had a

great summer and fall,” Brinkley said. “He has been doing everything

we’ve asked of him and his attitude has really been good.”

Peters, forced to shoulder more of the offensive load without

starting senior tailback Ryan Rippon (right knee ligament damage that

could sideline him for eight weeks), threw for 175 yards. Peters,

sidelined in Week 7 last fall by a broken collarbone, completed 16 of

24, his best single-game completion total in his eight varsity

starts.

Peters completed his first five passes of the first and second

halves, helping the Sailors move the chains -- 11 of their 18 first

downs came through the air.

Theriot, a veteran fullback who often shifted to tailback in a

two-back set, or operated as the single back in other instances,

amassed a career-high 70 rushing yards on 20 carries, pounding away

at the Barons and the clock with 14 second-half carries.

Theriot shifted from outside linebacker to the middle to fill in

for Thomas Martin (stomach ailment), helping the Sailors hold the

Barons to 38 yards on the ground, including just one rushing first

down.

Theriot also had three receptions for 25 yards.

The loss of Taylor Young, a starting outside linebacker out with a

broken ankle, was diluted by the play of junior Billy Brown, who

started in his place.

Also, defensive linemen Kaiona Kalama-Durto and Ryan Uhl (one sack

apiece), helped keep talented Fountain Valley quarterback Chris

Debowski contained.

Debowski threw for 92 yards and rushed for 17 more.

Ruiz, making his first varsity start, had 30 yards on 10 carries,

while junior wideout James Coder had three catches for 33 yards for

the Sailors.

Newport Harbor had the ball for all but 5 minutes, 25 seconds of

the 24-minute second half.